here, has met with little success. I apprehend it will take a long time to bring up American vintages to the standard of any of these European wines; and they certainly cannot be produced at less prices. My own experience of the American wine is not favourable. I confess frankly, that I think their wines, even including the famed Catawba, altogether inferior. However, there is scope enough for a domestic wine trade in the United States, if the product of the vintage is improved; and in California, where the culture of the vine is extending itself with extreme rapidity, the people appear to be enraptured with their produce, and to be great consumers of it.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PROVISION TRADE.

IN treating of the agricultural products of the United States, we must not forget their stock. The stock of the country is not only important as regards home supply, but the extent to which beef and pork are exported renders this business important in considering the subject of national resources.

The total value of the LIVE STOCK in the United States in 1860, was estimated at $1,089,329,915: equal to 217,865,9837. The total number of animals was estimated at 87,000,483; thus giving an average of about 27. 10s. for each animal. The animals were classed as follows:

These, it should be stated, are only the stock on farms and plantations. Those in the cities and towns are not enumerated; and, of course, increase the aggregate. It serves to show the prosperity of the United States that, excluding sheep and swine, we find in this enumeration of horses, asses, and neat cattle, at least one animal for every inhabitant.

It is computed in the United States, that every 100 people require 80 NEAT CATTLE: that 8 of those cattle should be working oxen, and 28 milch cows. It is remarkable that for the past 30 years these proportions have been maintained in the United States. Although the population has so greatly increased, the number of neat cattle has kept pace with it, as the following table shows:

This increase is, of course, quite irrespective of the

animals slaughtered. No return that I know of distinguishes the neat cattle in the general account of animals killed; but we know that the total annual value of these amounted, in 1860, to $213,600,000, or nearly 43,000,000l. sterling.

Ohio has more than 625,000 HORSES-considerably more than any other State; horses being largely used there for agricultural and general purposes. In the Western States generally, in 1850, there was a team of 5 horses to every family of 5 persons. In consequence of the vast increase of population, this proportion was greatly diminished in 1860; but even then there were 2 horses to every 7 persons. The horses in California increased from 21,719 in 1850, to 160,610 in 1860.

Highly bred horses are, however, admittedly very rare in America, and there appears to be nothing in the country that compares in any way with European studs. The breeding of horses has not been sufficiently regarded, and consequently the race is comparatively inferior. It is complained that the best trotting horses, which a few years ago were the most prized of all American steeds, are, after all, "only the highest type of the mongrel," that they get lame with half the work of an English racer, and that, "if it were not for a dash of superior blood in their veins, it would be found that after a trot they, literally and metaphorically, have not a leg to stand upon."* The "Conestoga horse" is, how

* Vide "Report on Cavalry Horses in America," in Appendix to "Report of the Commission of Agriculture presented to the House of Representatives, 1863."

ever, as a beast of burden, a very highly prized animal. He derives his name from a valley in Pennsylvania, to which State the original stock is supposed to have been introduced by some of its earliest settlers. The "Connestoga" combines great strength, with lightness and agility. The Philadelphia and Pittsburg mail was formerly horsed almost exclusively with this animal, and, although "young America" is said now to require a swifter horse, it is believed that there is no surer, safer, or more lasting one.

In the Southern and Pacific States, MULES and ASSES are largely bred as substitutes for horses. The mule is hardier than the horse; subject to fewer diseases; more patient; better adapted for travelling over rugged and trackless surfaces; less fastidious as to food; much less costly in feeding. He requires less grooming and attention, and usually lives and works to double the age of the horse. A mule is also more muscular in proportion to weight; and as a troop of mules will follow their leader, if that leader is only provided with a bell, they require on a journey much less attendance than a troop of horses. Hence, in many parts of the United States, mules are largely used as beasts of burden; their power of endurance and determined perseverance enabling them to overcome difficulties which are peculiar to that class of service.

The Census Report tells us, that, in America—

"A good, well-bred mule will do as much work as a horse, whilst it can be kept at one-third the expense. Mules are liable to fewer diseases than horses, and will bear ill-treatment better. For

careless hands they are more profitable than horses. They require less than half the expense for shoeing; and it is claimed that an average lot of mules can be disposed of more readily and at better prices than an average lot of horses; and that, as they cost less to feed, and can be worked a year earlier, they are a more profitable stock to raise."

All this appears to be conclusive testimony in favour of the use of the mule, especially in the Southern and less populated parts of the country, and it also accounts for the fact that a number of mules and asses increased, in the United States, upwards of 100 per cent. between 1850 and 1860.

WORKING OXEN increased in a much smaller ratio. The whole increase throughout the States was only 32 per cent. in the Eastern States, indeed, and also in Ohio, there was a decrease in the number of working oxen. This is to be expected; inasmuch as in districts which become more densely peopled and consequently more civilized, and (in the case of the United States) more wealthy, horses supersede Oxen in agricultural and other operations. Oxen, in fact, are more useful in a new country than where a higher system of agriculture is adopted and hence we find them in larger use in such States as Missouri, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Texas, and New Mexico, than in such States as Pennsylvania, or Maryland, where, indeed, working oxen are not increased in number, whilst horses and mules are largely increased. The use of improved agricultural implements also diminishes the force required from working oxen, and consequently diminishes their use, as such implements